See! I told you It wouldn't be long! Here we go with chapter 7
Seven
Mother
Everyday I fight a war against the mirror
I can't take the person starin' back at me
I'm a hazard to myself
The next day I had my private training session with Enobaria, it had been decided that Cato and I were going to volunteer for the Games and with the games just 7 months away training was getting more and more intense. A small problem considering the fact that, I was, you know, in love with him. Enobaria seemed distracted the entire time, I won't pretend that I was on task myself. I found myself being distracted too. About an hour in to our two hour session Enobaria stopped.
"Okay worthless, what's wrong?" she sighed, running her hands through her thick dark hair. "Don't tell me it's nothing. I know you're lying to me."
"Enobaria, can I tell you something?" I asked.
She frowned. "Of course you can tell me anything."
"I-I um had sex with Cato." I was uncomfortable.
She laughed, she actually laughed. Something which never happened before. "That's what you're so upset about?"
"Yes." I blushed.
"Well I can't say I'm surprised. Brutus and I have been wondering when the two of you would get together." She ruffled my hair.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" She raised an eyebrow.
"You never laugh, or smile…" I muttered.
"Oh, yeah um, I have personal reasons for that." She shifted somewhat uncomfortably like she was hiding something. "So why are you so upset. Did Cato force you into anything?"
"No." I muttered.
"Did you not like it?" She asked.
"No, I enjoyed it…" I felt myself grow red.
"Then what's wrong?" She sighed, clearly starting to get a little annoyed with me.
"It was unprotected." I muttered.
"Oh, okay that's a bigger issue then I foresaw…" She sighed. "Clove, there is nothing I can really do for you in this situation. If you miss your period, tell me and we' ll go to the hospital."
"Wh-what about my mother?" I asked.
"I won't tell your mother unless you are pregnant Clove. I promise." Enobaria said.
I started to cry. I don't know why, I can't explain it but in that moment I burst into tears. I was completely unwarned about them coming, they just did. I felt Enobaria's arms wrap around me and her pull me close. "Shh" Enobaria whispered. "You're okay. You're okay. It's going to be fine."
"Th-thank you." I cried.
"Clove, I want you to stay after training for a bit okay?" She whispered.
"Wh-why?" I asked.
"So we can talk a bit more. Okay?" She asked.
"Okay. Enobaria?" I asked.
"Yeah worthless?" She answered.
"You never told me you were married." I muttered, I know it sounds stupid but it was a very valid question at the time.
"Well you never asked." She laughed. "Brutus and I have been married for over six years now."
"H-how did you meet?" I found myself asking.
"Well, when I was eight, I had to take the garbage cans around to the back of the house, they were the big rolling kind and, I was tiny. At eight I was skin, bones and hair. I weighed at the most fifty pounds. Anyway the garbage can had 20 pounds on me and at least six inches. We lived on this big hill with a lake at the bottom. It was December and snowing. I had been managing the garbage can pretty well until I lost my footing. The garbage can pushed me all the way to the lake, I was screaming but when I hit the freezing water I just stopped. No tapering off I just stopped screaming as water filled my lungs. I felt someone's arms grab me, at first I thought it was Loki, come to punish me for screaming but whoever it was pulled me out of the water and took me up the hill. By that time I had realized I was bleeding, I only later found out I had cut myself on chunk of frozen ice. Soon I felt warmth and I looked around. It wasn't my house it was much cleaner. I looked up and saw Brutus. We had lived next door to each other for a long time and he had come to save me. That was the first time of many he helped me." She said.
"You needed help?" I asked. She shifted uncomfortably again and I got the feeling something was being kept from me. I don't like it when things are kept from me.
"Yeah I did, If it wasn't for Brutus I wouldn't be alive now. Clove, I know around here love isn't exactly celebrated but no matter what anyone says you need it. You need it to survive just as much as you need the skills you learn here." She whispered.
That unraveled everything I knew. I had been taught, not to love. Then I realized what Enobaria was saying, she had never told me love was bad. Brutus had never told be love was bad. Lyme had always told me love was a useless.
Lyme. If Brutus and Enobaria were the father and mother of this twisted little family of ours then Lyme was the crazy Aunt you didn't want anyone to know about. I'm not joking when Enobaria and Brutus had been in the capitol for the games last year she drove all of us to train so hard that I got pneumonia from all the ten mile runs in the rain. Enobaria was very upset with what Lyme had done and yet concealed it so well.
"Okay." I said.
"Good girl." Enobaria smiled, a golden fanged smile.
"Can I come in?" Brutus called from the other side of the door.
"Of course." Enobaria said. I turned around in my chair and saw Nutmeg, Hazel, Paprika, and little Chive.
"Girls how did you get here?" I asked.
Nutmeg brought Chive over to me. "P-pepper's having an episode. He won't stop screaming for you Clove."
I sighed, this happened a lot usually I was at home but this was the first time it happened in training. I looked out the window and saw a wall of white. Great it was snowing. I couldn't take the kids home in this. I bit my lip.
"Clove, the day is almost over. Brutus and I can take your sisters to our house, go calm your brother then I want you to come over too okay?" Enobaria said.
"Okay thank you!" I stood up and rushed out into the main training room. Cato was waiting for me.
"Hey, I heard do you want me to come?" He asked.
"Please." I said.
I didn't even have time to put my coat on. I just ran. Under normal conditions we would have made the one mile run in five minutes. In the blizzard it took us more like ten. About a hundred yards away I could hear Peppers screams.
I burst into the house in a flurry of snow and wind. Pepper rushed towards me. "CLOVEY!"
"Hi Pepper, what's wrong?" I asked.
"I want you here Clovey!" He cried.
"Okay, Pepper we are going to bed now okay?" I said.
"Okay Clovey!" He smiled and I led him upstairs and tucked him into bed, acting as though I too was going to bed. After forty-five minutes he finally fell asleep and I crept down stairs.
"Mom?" I said.
"Yes Clove?" She asked.
"The girls and I are staying with Enobaria tonight, Pepper should sleep until about 9 am tomorrow. I'll bring the girls back before we go to training okay?" I asked.
"Are you sure you can she can handle Chive?" Mother asked.
"Yes I'm sure." I walked out and took Cato with me. We ran the two miles to Enobaria's house where she and Chive were waiting up for us in the kitchen. She was holding Chive who was wearing a little blue onsie.
"Enobaria?" I asked. She looked up at me. "Where did you find that?"
"Brutus and I had a baby once. He died of SIDS…" Enobaria's eyes filled with tears.
"Oh, I'm sorry." I said.
"It's fine, it was several years ago." Enobaria said.
Nutmeg peeked her head in to the kitchen. "Wow, Clove I never knew how much you looked like Enobaria."
"Well of course, she looks like me." Enobaria said. "Your father is my brother."
"What?" I asked
"Your father was my brother." She repeated.
"How come I never knew about this?" I asked.
"You never asked." She shrugged as though this was a perfectly normal thing. As though everyone knew it. Everyone except me.
"So that makes you my Aunt?" I Asked.
"I guess it does." She said.
"How old were you when I was born?" I asked.
"Lets see, you're seventeen now, so I was about… sixteen." She said.
"Okay then. I'm going up to bed." I turned and waved. "Night"
I found Cato in the guest bedroom so I assumed we were sharing, Nutmeg and the other four girls were down the hall, I said good night to them before climbing in bed next to Cato. I felt his arm wrap around me tightly.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"I'm fine just worried about Pepper." I sighed. "He needs a lot more care then Chive does."
"Clove, don't lie I know something else is bothering you." He whispered.
"Yeah something else is." I confessed.
"What is it?" He coaxed.
"My mother, I wish she and risk were slightly more responsible." I sighed.
"How?" HE asked.
"Well my mother's pregnant again." I whimpered.
"Oh Clove I'm so sorry." He hugged me. I didn't throw in that I might be pregnant too…
I will see you in the next chapter "Secrets"
